Then he is persuaded by his entrepreneurial friend Fulkerson to move to New York to help him start a new magazine, where the writers benefit from a primitive form of profit sharing.

After many exhausting weeks of searching, Basil finally settles on an apartment full of what he and his wife refer to as "gimcrackery" — trinkets and decorations that do not appeal to their upper-middle-class tastes.

The magazine is bankrolled by a millionaire named Dryfoos, who became wealthy after discovering natural gas on his farm in the Midwest, and who is now making money on Wall Street.

Colonel Woodburn, a wealthy Southerner, and his daughter move to New York and become involved with the magazine when their social circle connects them with Alma Leighton; they board with her and her mother.

Fulkerson decides that he would like to publish some of Colonel Woodburn's pro-slavery writings in Every Other Week, because he believes they would create controversy and sell more copies of the new magazine.

At a banquet for people associated with the magazine, the political views of Dryfoos the capitalist, Lindau the socialist, and Colonel Woodburn the pro-slavery advocate clash.

Though Lindau has no use for Woodburn, he is even more fierce in his comments about Dryfoos the capitalist, and is not mollified by the millionaire's recollections of having avoided service in the war while paying for other men to fight.

Conrad Dryfoos, already a humanitarian helping the poor and working class, is charmed by the lovely Margaret Vance, who shares his values of charity.

Many critics consider A Hazard of New Fortunes to be one of Howells' most important examples of American literary Realism because he portrays a variety of people from different backgrounds.